A federal appeals court has ruled against the Trump administration’s plan to create a nationwide list of eligible voters, keeping the plan blocked in 23 states that challenged it in court.
The 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Saturday that the administration cannot move ahead with mail-in voting restrictions linked to the proposed list in those 23 states ahead of the November midterm elections.
The decision upholds an injunction issued in June by US District Court Judge Indira Talwani in Boston. She had already stopped the Trump administration from enforcing the order in the states that filed the lawsuit.
Trump’s voter list order
Trump signed the executive order in March. It directed the head of US Citizenship and Immigration Services and the commissioner of the Social Security Administration to create a “state citizenship list” of eligible voters.
The order also instructed the US Postal Service to deliver mail ballots only to people whose names appeared on the list. Trump described the move as a safeguard against election fraud. The administration has also said the list would help prevent non-citizens from voting.
Before signing the order in the Oval Office, Trump said, “The cheating on mail-in voting is legendary.”
But state election officials raised concerns about the plan. They warned that the citizenship list could contain errors and create confusion during elections. They also said eligible voters could be wrongly removed or denied access to mail ballots because of errors when government databases are cross-checked.
23 states and DC challenge the order
Democratic officials from 23 states and the District of Columbia sued the Trump administration in federal court in Boston. They argued that Trump’s order was unconstitutional because the president does not have the power to set election rules on his own. According to the states, that authority belongs to individual states and Congress.
Judge Talwani agreed with the states and blocked the order from being enforced for the November 3 elections.
However, her ruling applied only to the states that had joined the lawsuit.
The 1st Circuit’s latest decision keeps the same situation in place. The order remains blocked in the 23 states and DC that challenged it. The ruling does not change the order’s status in other states that did not join the lawsuit.
The case is expected to continue through further appeals and could eventually reach the Supreme Court before the November midterm elections.
What the ruling means for immigrants and non-citizens
The executive order was presented as a way to check citizenship during elections. But the legal fight has also raised concerns about how the plan could affect immigrants and naturalised citizens.
Non-citizens are already not allowed to vote in US federal elections. It is a federal crime for a non-citizen to vote in a federal election, and existing state and federal systems already check citizenship during voter registration.
The executive order did not change the basic rules about who can vote. Instead, it proposed a new system to verify voter eligibility by checking information across government databases.
Risk of eligible voters being wrongly flagged
Voting rights groups and state officials have argued that the proposed citizenship list could contain mistakes.
The list would rely on information from Social Security and immigration databases. Problems such as a name change, an incorrect number, an outdated record or differences between government databases could potentially cause an eligible voter to be wrongly flagged.
Naturalised citizens could be particularly affected if their citizenship information is not updated correctly in government records. People with changed names or names that are hyphenated or recorded differently in different systems could also face problems.
The concern is that the system could lead to eligible citizens being treated as if they were not allowed to vote.
Impact outside the 23 states remains unclear
For now, the court’s decision affects the 23 states and the District of Columbia that challenged the order. The 1st Circuit did not decide what happens in states that did not join the lawsuit. The legal status of the order in those states remains a separate question.
Immigrants and naturalised citizens living in states that did not join the case should check with their state election offices for the latest information on voter registration and mail-ballot rules.
The plan would have required the Postal Service to send mail ballots only to people included on the federal citizenship list. That meant an eligible voter who was mistakenly left off the list could potentially be unable to receive a mail ballot.
Voting rights advocates and state officials argued that voters could then have to prove their eligibility and correct the mistake themselves, possibly with very little time before an election.
What happens next
The Justice Department has said it is reviewing its legal options and remains confident that Trump’s order will eventually be upheld.
That means the legal battle is likely to continue, with further appeals possible before the November midterm elections. The Supreme Court could eventually be asked to decide the case.